"Everybody Tried to Copy Us, But Weren't Successful" - Jan Koum

In a recent interview with Economic Times, Jan Koum, the founder of Whatsapp made some pretty interesting statements and remarks. let's take a look at some of them and the candid views of the founder over his dream baby: Whatsapp.

1. First Taste of Success

On being asked about the idea for Whatsapp and their first taste of success, Jan Koum gave an honest answer. Frustrated with the closed nature of BBM and Skype, he decided to experiment and came up with an open system like Whatsapp where you only needed to have the other person's number in your contact list to connect with them.

He's extremely proud of the fact that Whatspap was the pioneer of messenger apps and the others merely tried to copy thier efforsts. "We were the first guys to do it, we were actually the first mover. Everybody else came in and tried to copy us, but they weren't successful. We were global from day one. We focused on translations, we added Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, into the applications from day one because we understood that it's the power of communication, that people want to communicate with people in other countries."

2. Pay for Voice Calling?

Whatsapp was free all these years but with the latest announcement post the Facebook deal, the very first question to raise it's ugly head was the monetization part. Facebook has known to be intensively money-driven whiloe Whatsapp so far, was relatively free. So with the new deal, is there anything that users need to fear?

Not in the regular messaging segment but when it comes to voice calling in June/July, users might have to sheel out a fee. In Jan Koum's words: "For voice, we haven't finalized it internally yet but we might do something different in terms of implementation but fundamentally it will be very similar."

3. Copying is Flattery

There are not many in the Tech world who take kindly to copying or putting it subtly, "being inspired by others" (read Samsung-Apple). Luckily, Jan Koum has no qualms with others trying to outsmart him at his game. If anything, he finds it flattering!

"We have always had people copy us. It's not shocking, if anything it's flattering. But what's important for us is to continue to get our product right. I spend more time worrying about ourselves, that we're doing the right thing."

4. No Other Ideas

Whatsapp is Jan Koum's baby and clearly, he wishes for it to continue being so. There's no plans for him to expand to other ideas yet and looking at the growth Whatsapp can have, we think it's a wise idea.

"I only have one idea, that is WhatsApp, and I am going to continue to focus on that. I have no plans to build any other ideas. The day the deal closes, it's going to be like any other day when we will go back to work. "

5. Disco Dancer Love

Jan Koum grew up in Russia where he loved watching Bollywood movies! And Disco Dancer is his all time favourite! Clearly, he wants the entire Indian population on Whatsapp, perhaps sharing Mithunda videos over the app!

"It's (India's) a very critical market for us. Ironically, I grew up watching Indian movies as a kid in Russia. I am quite familiar with Bollywood. I grew up watching Disco Dancer, I watched it some 20 times as a kid. India is important from a personal level too.

We want all smartphone users (in India) to be on WhatsApp. Then if that number is a billion, then it's a billion. Currently, over 40 million. So we still have some ways to go before we hit a billion."